Hello!
I have a quick question. I was wondering if one can bless their own room with holy water. To make a long story short, I get scared at night that the devil is going to come (like I said, long story short) and I was wondering if I needed a priest to bless my room. Thank you! I know I left a lot of information out, but I was hoping for a quick answer.
Merry Christmas and God Bless!
-DevotedtoYou12
You can sprinkle holy water yourself. That is why they sell holy water bottles with a sprinkle top.
Holy water is a powerful weapon against the filthy devil.
Ok. Thanks. That’s what I thought. Are there any prayers that I should say?
Maybe:
St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen…
Also, most important is praying the Our Father
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Have a priest come and bless the house.
My wife and I bought a new house over the summer. We had a priest friend come over to bless the house just prior to us moving in; and boy did he do it right.
First he did a excorcism on the house. Then all the rooms (and closets) were blessed with holy water, incense and a relic of the True Cross. He then annointed the door and window frames of each room with holy oil.
Then he sprinkled blessed salt around our house and on all for corners of the property.
There is no doubt in any demon’s mind exactly WHO has laid claim to this house and that they are simply not welcome here under any circumstances 
Remember don’t be afraid of Satan! That is what he wants! He can only get you if God permits him too!
I don’t know what your long story is, but truly friend, you should buy Fr. John Corapi’s series on immortal combat. Will make you a Soldier of the Lord!
Do you have sacramentals? I keep a blessed rosary under my pillow… 
Also, what Brendan is describing is pretty intense too. You should talk to your priest about it.
You can sprinkle holy water in any room of your house, sure. This is a nice prayer, to say… before you sprinkle the water.
“Heavenly Father, I ask Your blessing upon this home. In the Name of Your Son Jesus… I ask for all those who dwell here… to be delivered from sin and all evil influences.
Protect us, dear Father… from sickness, accidents, theft and all domestic tragedies.
I place this home under the Lordship of Jesus… and consecrate all who dwell here to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
May all who live here receive Your blessing of peace and love. Amen.”
Follow with an “Our Father”, a “Glory Be” and a “Hail Mary”.
May you have a peaceful, blessed Christmas… secure in the knowledge that you are LOVED and treasured by Jesus… Our Lord. 
Here are some house blessing & bedtime protection prayers:
Hedge Prayer for Protection of Household
Before moving into a new apartment, my Russian-born wife (May G_D keep her) insisted that I, as head of the house, bless the apartment. This was done with a candle, making the Sign of the Cross with the candle close to the wall every few feet, while reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Holy water would then be used in a similar way.
(This had to be done before we could release our Domavoi – house spirit, think Dobby from Harry Potter – from his shoe to protect the apartment. It’s a Russian thing. )
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This post sounds strange to me, like you blessed your house but a second later cursed it by inviting in some spirit not of God to protect your apartment? It might be a Russian thing but it sounds like a demonic thing to me.
In western culture, we see things as black and white: there is the physical (good, made by G_D) and spiritual, or non-material. Protestants tend to define anything spiritual outside of G_D as bad, i.e., demonic. (Angels are iffy – if you acknowledge them as individuals then you have to admit they are spiritual beings – disembodied personalities – that are good, then you run the risk of worshiping them, and besides, isn’t that a Catholic thing?)
Catholics recognize that angels and devils are the same class of beings, angels (who are good) and devils or demons (who are bad) being angels who rebelled against G_D because G_D planned to give humans immortal souls.
Russian culture extends that idea to include a multitude of beings “made from the parts left over from creation,” as my Russian wife used to say. Being intelligent, they have the ability to chose between good and evil. Creatures such as leprechauns or djinns, for example, have chosen evil. Not all of these creatures have chosen evil. The Domavoi (Russian for “house-spirit”) is a class of creatures that have chosen good, and express that good by protecting the humans living in a house from evil. They are usually described as having cat-like bodies with faces that resemble human faces.
Even into the '80’s, Russian newspapers would carry stories of how a Domavoi would protect someone. In my wife’s case, she told me of two times where she or her family met their Domavoi. One time was when her Domavoi woke her from a nap to tell her that her brother had died in a truck accident. Another time was when she was taking care of her dying husband, and fell asleep one afternoon leaving her sons (2 and 4) alone in the apartment. When she woke up, she was terrified that something might have happened to them. They were OK, though, and the oldest told her about the “funny-looking cat” that played with them and talked to them while she was asleep.
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Yeah, that still sounds pretty demonic to me.
Yeah, that sounds pretty demonic to me.
Hi Devoted,
Thank you so much for starting this thread!
:sad_yes: Yea. . I get that way too. . I become terrified because of intrusive thoughts that plague me, thoughts about demonic activity and visits from the evil ones, at night. It does not help that my anxiety disorder has progressed from just that “deer in headlights” fear and upset stomach, to full-blown “call the paramedics–I think I’m dying” panic attacks. I’m not sure what your personal situation is like, but either way, these are scary matters.
Right now, I am browsing Google for information on blessings–blessing oneself, one’s house, etc. Here is one helpful link I found: beautifulcatholicfaith.blogspot.com/2009/09/blessing-of-my-new-rosary.html Now, I usually ignore blogs because when I’m researching, I usually don’t want opinion; but, an article is included in this blog post.
This was also very helpful: newadvent.org/cathen/02599b.htm (It made me aware of the two types of blessings). .
But. . I’m really freaked out because I’m having anxiety over this as I type. . :frighten:
I will pray for you.
:hmmm:
Hi Muzhik,
My goal is not to attack you when I ask this. I have no desire or reason to be combative–I’m just curious.
How do you reconcile the domavoi with your Catholic faith?
I’m still learning about Catholicism so I may be very wrong on this, but to me, it doesn’t seem like the Catholic Church would not approve of this idea of “leftovers from Creation” and benevolent “House Spirits.” :-\ Like I said, I could be wrong; but, something inside tells me that this concept would not really be accepted by the Catholic Church. From what I know, the only things of this nature the Church acknowledges are angels and demons. You’re a Catholic and you are already aware of these things, so I don’t need to discuss these things any further. I’m just curious as to how you reconcile your beliefs as a Catholic with this idea of the domavoi, a “house spirit.” This is just my opinion, but it seems like a cultural superstition. .
Believe it or not, I am not a stranger to that. When I came back to Christ a few years ago, I still believed that burning white sage and sweet grass helped banish evil and bring “good spirits” around. When my Chaplain confronted me about this idea, I got very defensive about it because I felt like he was trying to take my culture, my heritage, away from me. (I’m of mixed “White” and Native American ancestry).
I went a long time thinking this was okay; honestly, I’m not sure if is acceptable for a Christian to perform or not. But, from what I know now, something tells me that it’s not okay. While I realize that it is okay for me to identify with more than one culture, I have also come to the conclusion that I need to steer clear of superstitions and non-Christian *religious * practices because my salvation and my God are more important than my earthly concept of culture. .
:twocents: That’s just how I feel, and I am not trying to force my own beliefs on anyone else. I was just curious, Muzhik. I look forward to your reply.
P.S.
I love your “Jesus fish!” 
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I wondered about this for a long time myself. To delve into a topic you brought up, I believe that burning white sage and sweet grass is so ingrained into some Native American cultures that I believe it would come under the heading of a “teaching” by the Holy Spirit to a culture that has not had the fullness of salvation history revealed to them.
Years ago (decades, actually) I read a newspaper account about different missionary groups working with non-Westernized tribes in some south Pacific island group. The article compared the different methods used by the Catholic missionaries as opposed to some of the Protestant groups. When the Catholics were preparing to bless a new church that had been built with the aid of the new converts, in addition to the holy water, the structure was blessed with the ashes of a sacred fire. The point in the article was that the Catholic missionaries, before being permitted to evangelize in a non-Westernized culture, had to get PhDs in Anthropology. This let them relate Christian/Catholic sacred symbols to the sacred symbols used by the tribes. Nothing extra was added to rituals without express Vatican approval to ensure that what was being used wasn’t simply some pagan ritual that would be syncretized into a Catholic service, but a cultural motif that the Holy Spirit had blessed this tribe with.
(The Protestant missionaries, BTW, didn’t come off so well in the comparison. The article noted one missionary group that in trying to evangelize the tribes also tried to westernize them. The end result was that the missionaries were driven out by force; and when they came back with a helicopter and a loudspeaker to broadcast their sermons, the tribes tried to shoot down the helicopters with arrows.)
So, re: the white sage and sweet grass, my initial impression would be either to include it with Holy Water as a way to include and honor the culture that the Holy Spirit had arranged to develop, or to forgo the “incense” and strictly use only the Holy Water to show your acceptance of the fullness of Catholic teaching. Intent is the key here: to use both because the sage and sweet grass are “just as good” as the Holy Water would be wrong.
Regarding the domavoi, my Russian-born wife (may G_D keep her close) was Russian Orthodox. I haven’t studied enough to know if the domavoi et. al. would count as a cultural tradition, an Orthodox religious Tradition, or as doctrine. Given the greater spiritual views of Russian Orthodoxy, I was willing to compromise and to treat the “domavoi” as a guardian angel. Since she is no longer with me, I don’t follow any of the traditions she brought with her (with the exception of drinking a shot glass of Holy Water whenever I get sick), so it’s not a big deal to me anymore.
Here are some other links you might find useful:
Spiritual Warfare Prayers:
catholicwarriors.com/pages/warfare_prayers.htm
Catholic First: Prayers for a Simple Exorcism:
catholicfirst.com/thefaith/prayers/simpleexorcism.html
Ohio Spiritual Warfare Center:
oswc.org/default.asp
Hi Muzhik,
Firstly, I want to say that I am sorry for your loss. I had no idea your wife had passed. :imsorry: Secondly, I enjoyed your post very much. I had no idea that Catholics had evangelized that way. I think it is so awesome that the missionaries had to have PhDs in Anthropology before they could do their missions, and I also think that it was great that they tailored the rituals to the native peoples, but not without Vatican approval.
I really like that you brought up the importance of intent when it comes to ritual. I think one’s intent accounts for a lot, because to me, one’s intent could turn a religious tradition into superstition, or vice versa. I have seen many people use Catholic traditions and rituals as if they were superstition! :eek:
I have even seen accounts on this very forum where some people have asked if a certain thing will happen if they do a certain practice. The simple answer to these questions is that no, it is not guaranteed to happen because God is not like some magic genie; and, that one should not use (fill in the blank) as if it were a superstition. Well, I guess we all get a little mixed up when we’re in need.
In any case, great post, Muzhik.